CAESAR                      O, Antony, I have followed thee to this. But we do lance Diseases in our bodies. I must perforce Have shown to thee such a declining day, Or look on thine. We could not stall together In the whole world. But yet let me lament, With tears as sovereign as the blood of hearts, […]

CAESAR                      Look you, sad friends, The gods rebuke me; but it is tidings To wash the eyes of kings. GALLUS                       And strange it is That nature must compel us to lament Our most persisted deeds. MAECENAS                His taints and honours Waged equal with him. GALLUS                       A rarer spirit never Did steer humanity; but you […]

DERCETUS                 He is dead, Caesar, Not by a public minister of justice, Nor by a hired knife; but that self hand Which writ his honour in the acts it did Hath, with the courage which the heart did lend it, Splitted the heart. This is his sword; I robbed his wound of it. Behold it […]

CAESAR                      What is’t thou sayst? DERCETUS     I say, O Caesar, Antony is dead. CAESAR          The breaking of so great a thing should make A greater crack. The round world Should have shook lions into civil streets, And citizens to their dens. The death of Antony Is not a single doom; in the name lay A […]

Enter Caesar [with his council of war]: Agrippa, Dolabella, Maecenas, [Gallus, and Proculeius] CAESAR          Go to him, Dolabella, bid him yield. Being so frustrate, tell him how he mocks The pauses that he makes. DOLABELLA               Caesar, I shall. [Exit] Enter Dercetus with the sword of Antony CAESAR          Wherefore is that? And what art thou that […]

CW: suicidal ideation   CLEOPATRA   How do you, women? What, what, good cheer! Why, how now, Charmian? My noble girls! Ah, women, women! Look, Our lamp is spent, it’s out. Good sirs, take heart; We’ll bury him, and then what’s brave, what’s noble, Let’s do’t after the high Roman fashion, And make death proud to […]

CW: suicidal ideation   CLEOPATRA               It were for me To throw my sceptre at the injurious gods, To tell them that this world did equal theirs Till they had stol’n our jewel. All’s but naught. Patience is sottish, and impatience does Become a dog that’s mad. Then is it sin To rush into the secret […]

CHARMIAN                 O, quietness, lady! IRAS    She’s dead, too, our sovereign. CHARMIAN Lady! IRAS Madam! CHARMIAN O, madam, madam, madam! IRAS Royal Egypt, Empress! CHARMIAN Peace, peace, Iras! CLEOPATRA   No more but e’en a woman, and commanded By such poor passion as the maid that milks And does the meanest chores.         (4.16.71-77)     As with […]

CLEOPATRA   Noblest of men, woot die? Hast thou no care of me? Shall I abide In this dull world, which in thy absence is No better than a sty? O see, my women, The crown o’th’ earth doth melt. My lord! O, withered is the garland of the war. The soldier’s pole is fall’n. Young […]

ANTONY         The miserable change now at my end Lament nor sorrow at, but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes, Wherein I lived the greatest prince o’th’ world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman; a Roman by a Roman Valiantly […]